Charmed

Day 5 – Spellbound/Enchanted.
Diana(1st Person)/Akko

5/7 Dianakko Week 2017

Atsuko "Akko" Kagari.

She was fascinating, an outlier, a rare case. Definitely not one of the better students at Luna Nova but her ambition makes up for it. Compared to everyone else, she's the one in dire need of help academically. Paired up with her ambition to become just as magnificent and as powerful as Shiny Chariot, she was determined to keep up with the rest of us.

And it wasn't long after I found myself a month into after class tutoring sessions with her.

It started out that right after Transfiguration class a month ago. She still was not able to change into any animal that came to mind. Although it's drastically improved since the last Samhain Festival, trying to perfectly mimic a specie is still one of the biggest challenges she's yet to overcome.

Professor Ursula, Chariot or whatever she prefers to be addressed to as of the moment, has dedicated more time to research about the Jennifer tree, giving Akko one less available tutor. Sucy, Lotte and the others could only provide her with such a limited pool of knowledge and had their schedules tightly knit with their own academic journeys. The other students, however, refrained from even holding a simple conversation with her due to Akko's infamous little skits—a wise choice knowing that Akko herself is an enormous responsibility.

It was inevitable that she approached me, asking to give her some form of advice with her technique on her transformations. We were good friends after all. And out of the many she's had, I was the one who was advance compared to the rest.

I promised her to meet me at the courtyard, I had to finish some writing and couldn't commit at her available time right after class. She was waving her wand frantically when I arrived, screaming out the spell and transformed herself into what looked like a person born with cat paws and whiskers. It was hilarious and disappointing simultaneously that I stifled a laugh with a dissatisfied expression.

"Diana!" she yelled desperately as she waved those black paws at me with a smile wide enough to light up the entire room.

I came a bit later than I expected but I couldn't cancel on her inspite of it. I'd promised to help her out, and as inconvenient as it sounded, I wasn't one who would abandon her because of circumstance.

I hadn't planned on giving her more than a few pointers, or a small amount of correction on whatever it was she was executing wrong. It didn't even take me a few seconds to adjust her mistakes—simply energy channels, visual imagery & proper spell pronunciation—that she was able to transform into a black cat without fault—except for that trademark half pony of hers that she doesn't seem quite adamant about getting rid of in her transformations.

Then it hit her. She was far too impressed with the results that she believed her magical progression would be exceptional if I was the one who taught her after class.

The apparent answer was no. I was not going to be accountable for Akko's education or her improvement. No, I'm not in favor of even giving her private lessons. No, I do not have enough time to fit Akko into my schedule.

No.

But Headmistress' Holbrooke and Professor Finnelan's timing was impeccable, for Akko at least. Seeing that she was able to transform, without fault, has given the both of them the idea that, in lieu of Professor Ursula's/Chariot's absence, the most suitable candidate for Akko's tutor would've been no other than myself.

This is when the after class tutorials began. Simple subjects, History of Magic, Fundamentals of Magic Pharmaceutics, Magic Linguistics, even broom flying, were topics that we touched.

Akko was persistent, although I found this entire ordeal bothersome. But I would never want to disappoint the Headmistress nor would I want to bring dishonor to Luna Nova. I had to deal with this distressing case completely and flawlessly.

I will not let Akko fail.

Her ambition fueled her punctuality—which worked in my favor. Although the other students were eager to point out that Akko was terrified of the consequences of tardiness, I would beg to differ. During our sessions, she was always eager to learn regardless of her weak, magical state.

Her passion is what she's known for and her expressiveness comes right in second. She was an animated person, and could easily be read by observing the curve of her lips, the shape of her eyes and arch of her brow. Screaming, frustrated head-scratching, fist slamming on heavy wood tables—these are just to name a few—are examples of her more extreme physical expositions. Akko's never regarded proper decorum, especially when dealing with feelings of distress.

"Akko," I called out to her. She was stuck on a particular passage, the tip of her finger was skimming through the lines of the page over and over again for the past few minutes.

"Ugh! I still don't understand it! Why can't everything be translated into a language everyone understands? Why can't the books just get with the times and get translated? Nobody even speaks this way anymore!"

"Per omnes potestas terrae et maris. Per omnes vis lunae et solis. Ipso volunta me, sic ipse. Carmen cantare et absolvere. Beatus esse." I read outloud and slow. I made sure to exaggerate each syllable so she'd pronounce it correctly. "It translates into, By all the powers of Earth and Sea. By all the might of Moon and Sun, As I do will, so—"

She sighed, then slammed her forehead on the book. "Diana…"

"It'll take a while for you to understand," I pointed out. "But I'm sure you'll be able to get it. Rome wasn't built in a day."

"I can't even read ancient text," she sat up, a defeated expression set across her features with a red patch on her forehead from where she hit the book. "This is going to take a while," she glanced over at the clock. "It's already been an hour," she said before she closed the book enthusiastically. "I guess, we're done!"

I was shocked at her declaration, "No, Akko. We're not done. You still have much to finish. Besides, it's fin—."

"No Diana. We're done, it's been an hour already." she interrupted, shoulders straight, brows high and eyes pierced straight through my own. "But we both know that you also need some time to study or else you'll fall back. I'm not going to hold you back from being a great witch. Not that you already aren't one right now. But you know, like, super much greater than you are right this moment."

"I'm telling you," I said as I crossed my arms. "This is no trouble with me. I'm not going to fall back because of this."

"Yup. I know. That's what you told me yesterday. And the day before that one. Let's be real Diana, you end up spending your entire day with me. I barely see you having time to yourself."

"It's be—"

"The day before that, we both spent the whole day and slept past bedtime because I couldn't nail that one spell!" She said, raising a finger closely between my eyes. "One!"

"Not so loud Akko." I hushed her as I reminded her that we were in the library. She was getting carried away again.

"The whole weekend, you even spent lunch with me to make sure that we'd hop right back into teaching. Don't get me wrong, I'm really, really happy and super, super thankful that you're doing this and I can see that I'm really getting good. Even if we've been only been doing this for a month. I know you want me to succeed, but I'm not doing that to pull you away from your own studies. You have your own ambitions and I'm not going to take that away from you."

She placed her hand on mine, an endearing smile plastered across her face.

"Think of it this way. If I catch up to you and cast a spell on you, accidentally of course! If you don't study, you might not be able to break it."

I paused for a bit, this strange and foreign feeling in my gut returned—this was something I've always had to endure when I was with her.

Akko's hand was on mine.

"I really haven't got the knack for mastering spells in a heartbeat. Remember? The first time, I gave you a bunny tail, like with Andrew's donkey tail. You were really mad at me, I haven't seen you that mad. Ever. Which was actually pretty scary. I thought you would throw me across the room that time."

Akko's hand was right on top of mine.

Embarrassment was the closest I could associate with the turmoil I've been experiencing. I knew it was similar, but all these emotions surfacing was an absolutely different experience. It was a silent addiction—an addiction that was still growing. Sure enough that it'll take years for me to even become accustomed to it.

"Maybe you've gotten used to the fact that I'm still not as good compared to you. And it actually feels nice that over time, you've gotten a lot more patient with me. You used to be so strict with the one hour sessions with me begging you to stay a little longer. But now, it seems like you don't even care how long we're going to study—I actually feel you're enjoying this time we have."

This was insane. But every word that tumbled out of Akko's mouth, I started to see our relationship with clarity—the butterflies in my stomach and the flush on my ears and cheeks having a rational reason behind it whenever she would touch me. I wanted Akko to succeed as a witch—hence I no longer wanted to consider the length of our sessions rather, her comprehension on the subject. I wouldn't deny that through time, it no longer was about Akko accomplishing or understanding the topic. Through time, I began to enjoy spending time with this baffling witch that seemed to somehow worm her way into my emotions and has had me dancing on the palm of her hands, unknowingly.

It felt good. Her fingers were gently stroking mine.

"Making sure I've done my assignments, keeping me out of trouble, making all these reviewers. You've gone out of your way so much to make sure that I'm on the right track to help me achieve my dream—no one's ever done that before."

My heart was beating faster, pulse quickening as this annoying warmth spread right across my cheeks—which started to become difficult to conceal.

"So, tonight is all yours, Diana. Enjoy the rest of your time studying! And you don't need to worry cause I'll be studying on my own tonight and I promise I'm going to make you proud." She let go of my hand, much to my dismay. She stacked the books we were reading and carried them as she stood, that endearing smile still plastered on her face. "I won't be able to help you out if I accidentally cast something on you that you won't be able to break."

Unconsciously, in a span of a month, I thought. She's already had.

Once Akko's made her way towards the library counter, nearly stumbling over to the amount of books she had on hand, I turned away from her, with my arms crossed, eyes closed in disbelief. How could I not have seen this coming?

I'm completely and foolishly attracted to Atsuko Kagari.

What's worse is that through all of my studies, there's no known spell out there to save my soul from this bloody magic of hers.